A model for continuous monitoring of patients with major depression in short and long term periods

The final publication is available at IOS Press through http://dx.doi.org/10.3233/THC-161289BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Major depressive disorder causes more human suffering than any other disease affecting humankind. It has a high prevalence and it is predicted that it will be among the three leading causes of disease burden by 2030. The prevalence of depression, all of its social and personal costs, and its recurrent characteristics, put heavy constraints on the ability of the public healthcare system to provide sufficient support for patients with depression. In this research, a model for continuous monitoring and tracking of depression in both short-term and long-term periods is presented. This model is based on a new qualitative reasoning approach. METHOD: This paper describes the patient assessment unit of a major depression monitoring system that has three modules: a patient progress module, based on a qualitative reasoning model; an analysis module, based on expert knowledge and a rules-based system; and the communication module. These modules base their reasoning mainly on data of the patient's mood and life events that are obtained from the patient's responses to specific questionnaires (PHQ-9, M.I.N.I. and Brugha). The patient assessment unit provides synthetic and useful information for both patients and physicians, keeps them informed of the progress of patients, and alerts them in the case of necessity. RESULTS: A set of hypothetical patients has been defined based on clinically possible cases in order to perform a complete scenario evaluation. The results that have been verified by psychiatrists suggest the utility of the platform. CONCLUSION: The proposed major depression monitoring system takes advantage of current technologies and facilitates more frequent follow-up of the progress of patients during their home stay after being diagnosed with depression by a psychiatrist.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

GPC based PID control of the roll Channel of flying vehicle with two actuators

A strategy to increase the control ability of aerodynamic control flying vehicles at the altitude higher than the standard range by using continuous time cold gas thruster is proposed in this paper. At the first an optimal PID (Proportional Integral Derivative) controller algorithm based on predictive control technique is defined, and a generalized predictive control (GPC) is used to derive the control law. Finally, based on the GPC control law PID control, parameters are calculated recursively. The result shows a proper response in the control of flying vehicle.Keywords: Optimal PID Generalized predictive control, Flight control

Laparoscopic Ventral Mesh Fixation in Patients with Pelvic Organ Prolapse

Pelvic organ prolapse (POP) is a condition with a high incidence rate and often creates difficulties in surgical coloproctology and gynecology. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of laparoscopic ventral reticular sacrocolporectopexy and sacrorectopexi in women and men with POP, respectively. This study was conducted at the Educational-Surgical Clinic of Azerbaijan Medical University and Department of Surgery of the Faculty of Medicine of Ankara University (2016-2019) on 21 patients with POP (15 women and 6 men). Results of diagnostics and surgical treatment of POP were studied with preferences towards endoscopic, radiation, and functional methods. The surgical methods used in these patients included laparoscopic fixation methods (sacrocolpopexy, sacrocolporectopexy) of protruding organs (uterus, vaginal vault/vaginal cuff, rectum) and simultaneous vaginal (colporrhaphy, colpolevatoroplasty, vaginal plastic surgery) and proctological surgeries (circulatory resection, hemorrhoidectomy, sphincteroplasty). The findings demonstrated that the most progressive POP mostly occurred in women of premenopausal age and during menopause. Based on the results of the long-term evaluation of the surgical treatment (6-12 months), the rates of recurrence of prolapse and complications were low (up to 4.8% and 9.5%, respectively) with favorable long-term functional results,  such as a decrease in the degree of fecal incontinence and constipation, observed in the evaluation. Due to the concomitant weakness of the ligamentous apparatus of the pelvic floor in these patients, there is the need for intra-abdominal apical support of organs. In conclusion, that laparoscopic sacrocolpopexy in women and sacrorectopexy in men are reliable surgical method to treat POP. However, specific skills need to be acquired by both gynecologist and coloproctologist to be able to do these laparoscopic surgery techniques

Electric Dipole Moments in U(1)' Models

We study electric dipole moments (EDM) of electron and proton in E(6)--inspired supersymmetric models with an extra U(1) invariance. Compared to the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM), in addition to offering a natural solution to the mu problem and predicting a larger mass for the lightest Higgs boson, these models are found to yield suppressed EDMs.Comment: 24 pages, 9 figures, 1 tabl

Implementation of secure email server in cloud environment

In the recent virtual communication world, the email services play a vital role as a basic content of heterogeneous networking infrastructure. Whereby, multiple platforms are connecting each other. Mail Server refers to computer performing Mail Transfer Agent functions. MTA is software that delivers electronic mail messages from one computer to another, by using client-server application architecture. MTA implements both sender and receiver portions of SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol). Postfix is a free and open-source MTA which is fast, easy-to-administrator and provide secure communication over Internet. In this paper we focus on the problem of email contents disclosure, and establish a secure mail server by using Postfix in Linux platform and then implement it into a cloud service provider as IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service). Security is provided by tuning a Transport Layer Security (TLS), and SMTP-AUTH which use Simple Authentication and Security Layer (SASL) as a security mechanism and platform

In-situ spectroscopy of intrinsic Bi2Te3 topological insulator thin films and impact of extrinsic defects

Combined in-situ x-ray photoemission spectroscopy, scanning tunnelling spectroscopy and angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy of molecular beam epitaxy grown Bi2Te3 on lattice mismatched substrates reveal high quality stoichiometric thin films with topological surface states without a contribution from the bulk bands at the Fermi energy. The absence of bulk states at the Fermi energy is achieved without counter doping. We observe that the surface morphology and electronic band structure of Bi2Te3 are not affected by in-vacuo storage and exposure to oxygen, whereas major changes are observed when exposed to ambient conditions. These films help define a pathway towards intrinsic topological devices.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure

Design of a mobile neutron spectrometer for the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS)

Environmental neutrons are a source of background for rare event searches (e.g., dark matter direct detection and neutrinoless double beta decay experiments) taking place in deep underground laboratories. The overwhelming majority of these neutrons are produced in the cavern walls by means of intrinsic radioactivity of the rock and concrete. Their flux and spectrum depend on time and location. Precise knowledge of this background is necessary to devise sufficient shielding and veto mechanisms, improving the sensitivity of the neutron-susceptible underground experiments. In this report, we present the design and the expected performance of a mobile neutron detector for the LNGS underground laboratory. The detector is based on capture-gated spectroscopy technique and comprises essentially a stack of plastic scintillator bars wrapped with gadolinium foils. The extensive simulation studies demonstrate that the detector will be capable of measuring ambient neutrons at low flux levels (~$10^{-6}$ n/cm$^2$/s) at LNGS, where the ambient gamma flux is by about 5 orders of magnitude larger

Femtosecond laser fabrication of fiber based optofluidic platform for flow cytometry applications

Miniaturized optofluidic platforms play an important role in bio-analysis, detection and diagnostic applications. The advantages of such miniaturized devices are extremely low sample requirement, low cost development and rapid analysis capabilities. Fused silica is advantageous for optofluidic systems due to properties such as being chemically inert, mechanically stable, and optically transparent to a wide spectrum of light. As a three dimensional manufacturing method, femtosecond laser scanning followed by chemical etching shows great potential to fabricate glass based optofluidic chips. In this study, we demonstrate fabrication of all-fiber based, optofluidic flow cytometer in fused silica glass by femtosecond laser machining. 3D particle focusing was achieved through a straightforward planar chip design with two separately fabricated fused silica glass slides thermally bonded together. Bioparticles in a fluid stream encounter with optical interrogation region specifically designed to allocate 405nm single mode fiber laser source and two multi-mode collection fibers for forward scattering (FSC) and side scattering (SSC) signals detection. Detected signal data collected with oscilloscope and post processed with MATLAB script file. We were able to count number of events over 4000events/sec, and achieve size distribution for 5.95μm monodisperse polystyrene beads using FSC and SSC signals. Our platform shows promise for optical and fluidic miniaturization of flow cytometry systems. © 2017 SPIE

Do Peripheral and Extra Musculoskeletal Manifestations Have An Impact on Biologic Dmard Prescribing Patterns in Axial Spondyloarthritis: the Results of Treasure Experience

[No Abstract Available